Reflections on a rodeo

Yesterday Russ and I attended our first rodeo. As I explained to an interesting couple we met there, it's not that we are "city-slickers". We have spent some time around cows and have ridden horses a little. We just had never experienced a real western rodeo. The weather was good. We had to drive 2 hours to get to the rodeo and it was enough higher in altitude to be 20-30 degrees cooler than the oven here in Sun City. There was a little rain partway through the performance but it was warm enough to be acceptable and we were both happy we had worn hats. (It was to keep the sun off our faces but it worked for the rain, too.) As we lined up at the gates to leave, it finally broke into a downpour but the timing was just fine to have avoided interfering with the show. Now I know it's not appropriate to judge a book by its cover but there were some men there with pretty fine "covers"! They had muscles you could see right through their comfortable shirts and jeans. There were very few tattoos, weird hairdos, black clothes, heavy jewelry, or any other extreme attempts at getting attention. Most of the females were pretty normal, too. There were a few examples of skimpy or tight clothing to show off large chests or skinny waists or whatever they were trying to show off. But for the most part, they were just regular, clean-faced, down-to-earth people. We were amazed right at the start when they requested that hats be removed so they could have a prayer! Right there in public, over the loud speaker! Then they paraded around with the American flag and people just automatically stood up- all the way through the singing of the national anthem, too. And that was sung a capella (without accompaniment- even the pre-recorded kind) by a young lady in modest cowgirl style clothing. She sang with a clear soprano voice without any of the excessive wabblings that seem prevalent among entertainers today. It was simply the national anthem, not somebody's rendition of it.
We saw roping steers solo and as teams. We saw girls riding incredibly fast around big barrels. We saw riders hanging on for dear life to a rope on bucking bareback horses, saddled horses, then the final throat-in-your-heart huge bulls. These were all "rodeo cowboys", not working cowboys. In other words, this is what they do for a living! Russ commented several times, and I totally agreed, it's a heck of a way to earn a living. I would think they would have broken necks and backs and bruises all over the place. We saw a guy get stepped on by a bucking beast. He limped out of the arena with help. One of the ropers got his hand burned badly enough that he couldn't hold the reins with it.
They talked about being grateful for the men and women who serve our country. They talked about being grateful for freedom. The people applauded and encouraged the guys who failed to lasso their target or the ones who fell off their ride too early to qualify for a time ranking. They talked about loving family and how wonderful kids are. There were some kids, aged 5-13, who rode sheep. None of them stayed on very long but they were cheered whole-heartedly by the crowd. The announcer also talked a lot about the animals involved. He praised their beauty and called them "animal athletes". I realize there are probably people who would criticize rodeos. I didn't see any evidence of animals being hurt. I just thought that this is the result of a long tradition of trying to make a community entertainment out of what some people have worked hard to accomplish in their everyday life for many years. It was a way of validating the skills that are normally accomplished without any fanfare.
We had a good time. I can't say we'll become real enthusiasts because we like music better. But we had a good time. I just wish I had remembered to take the camera...............